


And the Stars Above

by Vagrant_Blvrd



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, The Mandalorian (TV)
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-13
Updated: 2021-02-13
Packaged: 2021-03-12 17:00:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,499
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29388090
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Vagrant_Blvrd/pseuds/Vagrant_Blvrd
Summary: The first time Din sees the Jedi sleep happens not long after they meet.
Relationships: Din Djarin/Luke Skywalker
Comments: 20
Kudos: 312





	And the Stars Above

**Author's Note:**

> This was supposed to be the 5 times fic but with naps and went sideways on me??? ¯\\_(ツ)_/¯

They reach a small moon orbiting a jungle world and the Imperial shuttle they took from Gideon’s cruiser develops engine trouble. The Jedi seems unbothered by the inconvenience, claiming they’re midway to whatever destination the he has in mind for them.

Repairs will take another day at best, and the Jedi says it’s a good chance to get rest while they can, weight of past experience to it that Din understands all too well.

He’s grateful for the opportunity to process the fact the Jedi has no intention of preventing contact between Din and Grogu. Had seemed appalled at the idea, saddened, something about it keeping Din from pressing further.

Now, the Jedi is sitting just beyond the circle of light the fire they started provides, hands resting on his knees. Firelight casts odd shadows on his face, but it’s clear his yes are closed, breathing slow and even.

His droid is behind him, powered down to conserve its energy, which is just as well.

Din snorts, shakes his head and turns to look at Grogu who’s given up stalking this moon’s version of a frog.

“No luck?” Din asks, smiling at the look Grogu sends him for the question. Part wounded pride, part exasperation with Din for teasing him.

Din bites back a laugh and tips his head to the spot beside him. “Come over here and you can have some of this when it’s done. Just a little longer.”

There’s a bird over the fire, good catch from earlier. Enough meat to supplement their rations, make them more tolerable.

Grogu tips his head to the side in consideration, and looks to the Jedi. A moment later he starts walking toward him, clearly intent on waking him.

“Grogu no,” Din says, getting to his feet to catch him before he can. “Let the Jedi sleep.”

Din doesn’t know what the Jedi went through before arriving on Gideon’s cruiser, but the man defeated – destroyed – the platoon of Dark Troopers Gideon had been so proud of. Din fought one and barely won, still felt the effects from the fight. 

The Jedi had his sorcery and his laser sword, but Din can’t imagine it was as easy, effortless as it had seemed at the time, that he wasn’t tired.

Din scoops Grogu up before he reaches the Jedi, gives the little womp rat a look as he scolds Din for stopping him. For a brief moment Din thinks he’s succeeded in allowing the man to rest a little longer, but then hears a quiet chuckle.

“I wasn’t sleeping,” the Jedi says, and Din turns to see him stretching, smile on his face as he watches Din and Grogu. “I was meditating.”

The Jedi looks as calm, controlled, as he did on Gideon’s cruiser. There’s a small smile on his face, and a light in his eye that Din instinctively knows to be wary of, similar to the one he sees so often in Grogu’s shortly before some minor disaster befalls Din.

He looks better rested now, the shadows under his eyes Din hadn’t known to look for gone, holds himself easier as though whatever weight was bearing down on his shoulders before are...not gone, but lightened.

“Meditating,” Din says, skepticism audible. 

The Jedi laughs again and nods at Grogu. “...It’s a ‘Jedi thing’.”

If possible, Din is somehow even more skeptical now. From the way the Jedi’s smile gains a wry twist, it sounds as though the Jedi is quoting someone. A joke of some kind, perhaps.

Din looks down when Grogu pats his arm insistently to see him looking wistfully at the bird roasting over the fire, and rolls his eyes.

“Food’s ready,” Din says, shelving the discussion for now in favor of keeping Grogu from giving him soulful looks.

The Jedi laughs again, a warm amused sound that lingers in Din’s mind long afterward.

========

The state of the Jedi’s school, such as it is, is disastrous.

His Artoo unit trundles on ahead of them, warbling and beeping as it levers itself over uneven terrain.

“Ah, yes,” the Jedi says, rubbing the back of his neck. “I haven’t actually been back here for some time.”

That much is obvious.

The Jedi sighs, shoulders slumping as he prods a pile of rocks with the toe of his foot. There’s an odd look on his face when he looks up again.

“This used to be a base for the Rebel Alliance,” he says, waving a hand to the structures still standing, signs of a battle that took place here years ago. Wreckage of ships that didn’t make it off the ground, other destroyed equipment scattered about and in the process of being reclaimed by nature. “My first posting.”

An expectant silence follows that, something Din doesn’t know what to do with. Knows that Yavin 4 was where the first Death Star was destroyed, a major victory for the Rebel Alliance they’d needed badly.

Din’s heard stories over the years of the Death Star’s destruction, no doubt exaggerated, embellished in the telling, elevated to something out of myth and legend than truth rooted in reality.

But now Din knows the Jedi was assigned here, almost certainly took part in the battle if he was stationed here. A man with his powers would be invaluable, the sort of asset the Alliance would have been foolish to waste.

Simple math. 

“Hm.”

Din watches the Jedi in his periphery. Wonders if he’s chosen Yavin 4 out of nostalgia or some other reason.

After a moment the Jedi shakes his head, ghost of a smile on his lips as he starts towards the structure the Alliance repurposed into a base of operations, feels a thread of unease as he sees what they did to it.

The base’s walls and foundations anchored into ancient stone and rock, bleeding over everything.

“It was a Jedi temple once,” the Jedi explains softly. “I think that’s why the Alliance chose it.”

Admittedly Din knows very little of Jedi and their importance. What the Armorer told him was skewed through lens of their people and their history with Jedi. 

Cara and the others told him some things on their mission to rescue Grogu, Din able to recognize those stories as being equally skewed by the awe and mystery surrounding the Jedi even now. 

Seeing the Jedi in action through the security monitors on the bridge of Gideon’s cruiser, Din can understand the reverence for the Jedi if this one is an example of his kind. The symbolic imagery of the Alliance using a Jedi temple would have been important to them, as much as it is to the New Republic now.

“And they have no problem with you building your school here?”

From what Din’s seen of the base so far neither the Alliance or anyone who’s come here since then managed to fully strip it of valuable equipment, supplies.

The Jedi shrugs, mouth quirking into a tired smile. “To them I’m the last Jedi,” he says, gaze sliding away from Din’s. “They want to stay on my good side.”

The wording of that - 

“You’re not,” Din says, thinking of Grogu. Of Ahsoka. Others like her who must have gone into hiding all those years ago.

The Jedi sighs.

“No I’m not,” he agrees, “but the others have their reasons.”

He looks around, sees something more than an empty hangar full of abandoned equipment and machines, broken stone and carbon scoring on its walls. Vines and other plants creeping in.

“Who knows, maybe the school will entice some of them to come forward.”

There’s hope to his voice, determination to the set of his jaw. Belief that other Jedi will hear the call he’s putting out with the founding of his school, rebuilding what was lost to them.

And in the meantime the Jedi allows the galaxy to place him on a pedestal while it paints a target on his back in the same breath.

========

Din finds the Jedi slumped over one of the tables in the mess hall, head pillowed on his arms a few days later. 

He stops in the entryway, concerned for a moment until he sees the steady rise and fall of his breathing and feels a little foolish.

He doesn’t know what he was expecting to see when the Jedi’s droid showed up at his door, beeping shrilly and refusing to leave until he an Grogu followed it.

The Jedi has taken to teaching Grogu where he can as they clear out debris and detritus from the base, helps him focus as he learns – relearns? - to levitate rocks and other object as they work. Keeping an eye on him as he and Din sort the equipment left behind into categories based on their purpose and salvageability.

Their work is slow-going with just the two of them, but even the short time they’ve spent on it show progress. Enough they’ve managed to make use of the living spaces, sleep in the bunks rather than the floor of the shuttle.

It’s tiring, though. Long hours spent moving rock and stone and metal, and the Jedi has been teaching Grogu, and happy to do so.

Din knows Grogu adores the Jedi already, happy to show him his latest catch when he goes Din to catch something for their meals. A fascinating insect caught gently in his hands before being released, or a less fortunate creature that’s the closest thing to a frog.

By his feet, Grogu sighs, sounding remarkably like Din when faced with something...well, something like this.

“Yeah,” Din says, his own sigh caught in his chest at the sight of the Jedi like this. “I know, Grogu.”

Din picks Grogu up and walks over to the table the Jedi has claimed for himself. Once he’s closer he sees the data pad the Jedi’s been using to make lists of things they’ll need to requisition for the school once they’re done cleaning.

Oddly enough, there’s also what seems to be a caf machine on the table as well. Outer casing removed, as though the Jedi was working on it before exhaustion hit.

Din looks to the Jedi’s droid, as if it will provide insight on matters, but it’s not there anymore. A quick look around the room and Din realizes it must have left while he wasn’t paying attention, a troubling thought he pushes aside when the Jedi sighs in his sleep.

“Jedi,” Din says, wary of touching the man to wake him. He rarely reacts well when others do it to him, knows some who react with violence without meaning to. Doesn’t want to risk what the Jedi might do. 

The Jedi groans, fingers of his right hand twitching in his sleep, something odd about their movement.

Din sighs, feels a burst of amusement at Grogu’s quiet laughter, and tries again.

“ _Jedi_.”

The Jedi jolts awake with a sharp gasp, hand dropping to his hip where his laser sword is, eyes scanning the room before they stop abruptly on Din and Grogu.

He frowns.

“What - “ he starts to ask, only to be interrupted by a yawn. One that clearly takes him by surprise if the wide-eyed look he turns on Din is any indication. 

Din raises an eyebrow the Jedi can’t see, amusement thrumming in his chest, along with something new he didn’t expect. Fondness.

“You fell asleep, Jedi.”

The man frowns, looks down at himself as though that will somehow help, and back up at Din and Grogu. There’s a stubborn set to his jaw, glimmer of humor in his eyes.

“I didn’t fall asleep,” he says loftily, but the smile playing at the corners of his mouth gives him away. “I was...meditating.”

Grogu snorts, mirroring Din’s own feelings on such a blatant lie.

“I see,” Din says, unmoved. “Perhaps you’d like to...meditate in your room instead of here?”

Before the Jedi can protest, Din sets Grogu on the table, lets the little womp rat turn those big, dark eyes on him, work his magic that has nothing to do with Jedi sorcery.

“Oh,” Din hears, along with a quiet huff of laughter. “That’s low.”

Din’s too well-trained not to use every weapon at hand, and he’s found that Grogu is by far the best option in these situations.

“I don’t know what you mean by that, Jedi.” Din says, and watches the Jedi get to his feet, Grogu looking up at him and raising his arms expectantly.

The Jedi rolls his eyes. “Luke,” he says. “My name is Luke. You can use it if you’d like.”

Din cocks his head as he tests the feel of the Jedi’s name on his tongue. It’s a fitting name, somehow. Suits the – suits Luke.

“Luke,” Din says, and without thinking places a hand on his shoulder as he walks him to the room he’s taken as his own, just down the hall from the one Din and Grogu use. 

========

Luke discovers a sinkhole almost a month after they arrive on Yavin 4.

Din and Grogu find him half a day later.

Once they get him back to the temple and see to his injuries, Luke sleeps for a full day before he wakes up.

Din and Grogu stay by his side the entire time.

========

“This seems reckless, even for you,” Din comments, aware of the incredulous look Luke’s giving him. 

There are battle plans on display on the holo table, anti-air placements, enemy patrol routes. Fuel storage tanks. All those and more, and above it, a single X-wing.

It’s been months since that day on Gideon’s cruiser, and Luke’s shared stories of his time with the Rebel Alliance. Incidents he’s been part of since then, faint blush, sheepish smile, for some.

More than that, Din’s met Leia. Han. The ones Luke thinks of as family.

When asked, they offered him a far different version of the stories Luke told him, the ones where Luke minimized the danger to himself or forgot to mention it at all.

“It’s an Imperial base,” Luke says, and he seems confused. Like he doesn’t understand what Din’s saying, why he’d argue the matter when rumors of certain experiments taking place there surfaced.

Din stares at Luke, who looks like a completely different person than the man he’s gotten to know over the past few months. 

The blue of the holo-projection washing his face in blue, harsh shadows and cold lines and Din knows he’s looking at Commander Skywalker of the Rebel Alliance.

“And you’re one man,” Din says quietly. 

Hero of the Rebel Alliance, last Jedi and all the other titles and accolades people have seen fit to set on his shoulders, and yet still just a man.

He can see Luke steel himself, hands planted on the edge of the holo table.

Din keeps his gaze on Luke.

“Artoo,” he says, and smiles as his ship joins the X-wing over the base without further direction.

========

Leia finds out about the Imperial base and her brother’s plans to infiltrate it.

When they drop out of hyperspace above the planet it’s located on they’re accompanied by an X-wing squadron commanded by an old friend of Luke’s and a light corvette.

========

“I hate the cold,” Luke says, staring out at the rocky terrain and raging blizzard outside. 

They’d come here in search of Jedi relics based on the word of one of Luke’s friends. Meant to be here a day, two, at the most, but things had gotten complicated.

Gone from a simple trip to one of those “incidents” Luke referred to from time to time when a pair of overzealous bounty hunters with a bounty puck for _Luke_ showed up. It was an old one, and Luke had sighed when Din activated it and his face appeared, gone quiet, thoughtful when he saw the reward amount.

The ship had been hit in the fight, repeater blaster ripping a hole in its hull, clipping the fuel line. By the time they’d gotten the hull patched the blizzard was over them and they had no choice to wait until it ends to finish repairs.

Luke’s bundled up in the cold-weather gear they brought, and he still looks miserable. 

The ship is cold, yes, but it’s a far cry from the temperature outside, and from Artoo’s sad little noises in the corner the droid’s parked himself in, Din realizes there’s something more to Luke’s current mood than bad luck.

“I think Solo left a Sabacc deck last time he visited,” Din says, shoulder bumping Luke’s as he goes to find it. “Might make time pass.”

========

Luke is a cheat, Din discovers to his surprise, and shameless about it.

He laughs at Din, and _winks_. 

“Han thinks I learned it from him,” he says, and shrugs. “But I grew up on Tatooine.”

========

Din quits while he still has a handful of credits to his name, and shakes his head as Luke chuckles and scoops up his winnings. 

Variety of currency, energy bars in the flavors they prefer. Nuts and bolts plucked out of a parts bin and thrown in to see Luke’s reaction. A scope from one of Din’s rifles taken from the weapons locker as a last ditch effort.

His new ship has a larger sleeping compartment, and bunks for both of them, and yet Din doesn’t say a word when Luke settles beside him when he’s done gloating.

Din helps Luke wrap blankets around them both to ward off the cold, feels something warm, familiar in his chest as Luke leans against him and starts telling him about some past incident involving Solo and “misunderstandings” the way do many of the stories involving Solo seem to.

Luke falls asleep before he finishes his story, head resting on Din’s shoulder while Din watches over him.

========

“I grew up on Tatooine,” Luke mutters, protesting the situation even with undeniable proof as Din pushes him gently to his room. “We don’t get colds!”

That’s...impossible, but Luke is far from his best at the moment, so Din refrains from commenting.

They’ve barely been back a day from the ill-fated trip to a ball of rock and ice before Luke showed signs of being sick.

It had taken several more days for his cold to progress to the point Luke gave in to Din’s suggestion he consider rest. Even if he still refuses to admit he’s sick.

Din walked in on the argument Luke was having about said subject just in time to see Leia throw her hands up in frustration, and Din knew it was a short trip from there to requesting Chewbacca’s help in getting her brother to rest and stepped in.

Grogu is perched atop Artoo, both of them trailing behind Din and Luke. There’s a worried note to Grogu’s voice as he holds a conversation with Luke’s droid.

Luke stumbles on the threshold of his room, and only the fact Din moves quickly enough to catch him stops him from a bad fall. 

“Sorry,” Luke says, eyes wide as he looks up at Din, swallows. He laughs as he clumsily pats Din’s chest before moving away. “I’m just - “

Luke waves a hand, at himself, and the room around him. Laughs, and it’s a small thing, hollow. 

Sad. 

“Sorry,” he says again, and goes to change.

Din should leave.

He’s managed to get Luke this far, acknowledge the fact that at the very least his body needs rest, consider it a minor victory and go back to his business.

But.

Din thinks about all the things he knows of Luke, what people think of him. The weight of so much responsibility on his shoulders and Luke's stubborn insistence he wasn't sick long after it stopped being amusing. How he must see it as a failing. _Weakness_.

Din feels anger welling up in him at the thought, anger on _Luke's_ behalf for everything he's expected to be. That he's not allowed to be human, to be himself, and it takes him by surprise in the way it isn't a surprise.

Grogu coos, and when Din looks at him there’s a knowing grin on his face. Toothy.

“Be good,” Din admonishes, and watches as Grogu and Luke’s droid leave, no doubt intent on causing mischief elsewhere.

========

Luke is surprised to see Din’s still there when he comes back out. Pauses, head cocked to regard him, eyes moving to the chair where Din’s armor is neatly stacked. 

“Din?”

He still has his helmet on, but Luke doesn’t seem to mind. Thinks one day he can take that off as well, but for now this is what he can do.

“Sleeping in the armor isn’t comfortable,” Din says, and for the first time in years has the horrible urge to fidget under the weight of Luke’s gaze.

He’s about to say something else, awkward, stupid, when Luke laughs.

It sounds better than the last one Din heard from him, real, honest.

“Okay,” Luke says softly, and when he joins Din he fits perfectly into the space beside him.


End file.
